Fraser Forster was gutted to see Celtic’s Europa League campaign come to an end in Udinese.
A fighting 1-1 draw wasn’t enough to keep Celtic in the competition as the joint leaders of Serie A hung on for the point that edged them through.
Forster pulled off an incredible double save from Toto di Natale with 15 minutes left to play then joined in attack for two injury time corners as Celtic chased the goal that would have put them into tomorrow’s draw for the last 32 of the competition.
“We’re a bit disappointed,” the keeper told ESPN. “We created some good chances and with a bit more luck we could have had the three points to go through. The lads were saying that we maybe should have had a couple of penalties for handball, it’s disappointing.
“We’ve got better and better as the season has gone on, I think that we deserved a win. It was a bad time to conceded a goal (in first half stoppage time) on another day we could have won it.
“I expected to be tested, I tried to do my bit for the cause but it just wasn’t enough. We’re on a great run and it’s important that we look forward to Sunday because St Johnstone will be a tough game away from home but if we play like that it should be more than enough.”
James Forrest was a constant threat to the Udinese defence with Forster watching from afar as his young team mate created havoc for the Italians.
The keeper added: “Some of the stuff that James can do is unbelievable. I can’t speak highly enough of him.
“I think that we’ve been a credit to Scottish football with the way that we’ve played in a Champions League type group, we’ve shown that we can handle it.”
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I thought we played extremely well in the first half, although the limitations of some players were exposed with some of the very poor goals we have lost in Europe.
Felt we should have made the substitions much earlier as Samaras & Forrest had run out of steam with Hooper getting next to no service at all.
Really don’t see Brown being central midfield at all, certainly not in Europe where his poor passing doesn’t help.
Hopefully we ensure we have adequate cover for Izzy at left back next time around as Mulgrew is simply not fast enough to play this position.
Really need to work on our set plays, throw-ins are a waste of time. Plenty of promise but from a very difficult group we could have qualified which is disappointing.
Big Fraser had a great game and is improving week in week out. I think we should make his switch permanent in January. He is still very young and will improve more.